What is Sale-A-Bration you ask?  Or "SAB" for short?  Its Stampin' Up!'s once-a-year mega sale!  From January 3, 2018 to March 31, 2018, you can:

• earn free, exclusive products with every qualifying order (SHOP!)
• earn an extra $25 in Stampin' Rewards if you host a qualifying party (HOST!)
• earn 2 additional stamp sets worth over $100 to your kit when you join my team (JOIN!)

Sale-A-Bration Highlights:  This year, in addition to a host of great free stamp sets (pandas!!), DSP, accessories and card kits, you can earn Thinlits dies that will carry over into the annual catalog. Most of the SAB products are exclusive to Sale-A-Bration, you can only get them by ordering prior to the end of March!

Sale-A-Bration Details:

SHOP!
For every $50 USD you spend, you’ll receive a free Sale-A-Bration product. For anyone who has enjoyed Sale-A-Bration in the past, there is an exciting enhancement - there is a new reward level, if you spend $100 USD, you can retrieve either two level one products or one level 2 products.  This gives you lots of flexibility and options for your free items.
​Confused?  Check out the Sale-A-Bration brochure by clicking on the button below,  or ask me!

HOST!
Host a qualifying party with at least $250 USD in sales during Sale-A-Bration, and earn an EXTRA $25 USD more in Stampin’ Rewards!  Thats the 10% Rewards you normally earn PLUS $25USD.  Cool! 

JOIN!
Joining my team by selecting $125 USD worth of products, but pay only  $99 USD for your starter kit, plus add your choice of TWO additional stamp sets for their kit—any stamp set, any price. (Excludes bundles and Sale-A-Bration sets.) Plus, the kit ships for free!  Even better, if you host a party and earn Stampin' Rewards, these rewards can even be applied towards a Starter Kit.  There is no obligation to continue as a demonstrator after you purchase the Starter Kit, but I hope you'll want to become a member of my team and share my passion for papercrafting!  Click on the Join tab at the top of this page.

Its Christmas Eve, and I'm finally done with all my preparations!  Phew!  While I'm looking forward to celebrating the holiday with family and friends, I'm also looking forward to the downtime after the holiday when I will find time to catch up on the crafting that I've been missing.  Don't get me wrong, I do craft in December, but its usually a little frenetic, "must get it done" kind of crafting for the tag for the handmade candy I'm gifting to a neighbor, or a card for that person who sent us a card, or creating the table favors for Christmas dinner.  After the holiday, I usually sit down and just create for fun - whatever suits my fancy.  I try and use stamp sets or dies that I haven't had a chance to use yet, or that I have seen on Pinterest on someone's blog.  I also do more scrapbooking at this time of year - I guess the reflection that comes with the winding down of one year and the start of the next just gets me in the mood.  Whatever the reason, its definitely a time of the year that I always enjoy.

Before we get there, though, I wanted to share one last quick Christmas card.  I saw someone use the tab punch for an ornament topper and I took the opportunity to use that idea and the gorgeous Season of Cheer DSP.  This DSP is absolutely beautiful, and I'll be very sorry when I use up my stash.  I also love the embossing folder on silver foil.  This card was very quick, but because of all the gold and silver foil and gold accents, it really packs some serious style points.  The pictures do not do this card justice.

​Hope you and yours have a very Merry Christmas!

Here is a picture of the 12 finished cards - wish I already had my Stamparatus, it would have lining up the sentiments inside the card a lot easier!
The inside contained the sentiment, a little more coloring, a touch of washi tape and the fun personalized bone folder.

Check back tomorrow to see all the tag swaps - which were just fabulous!

This card was easily made using the super popular Large Letter thinlits.  Here's an easy way to recreate this card - cut a piece of Whisper White cardstock to 3-7/8"x 2-7/8", then die cut the letters J and Y, leaving space in between for the "o" made of the new garland embellishment.  Place the cut piece of cardstock in the Holly embossing folder, lay the cut out letters J and Y back into the spots from which they were cut, and run through the Big Shot to emboss the entire piece.  Carefully set aside the embossed letters, then mount the die cut panel onto a piece of Real Red cut to 4" x 3".  Adhere the letters back into their "spots" using Mini Dimensionals.  Adhere this panel to the card base, which is a standard A4 card (8-1/2" x 11" cardstock scored on the long side at 4-1/4"), a Real Red mat cut to 4" x 5-1/4", and a piece of the Quilted Christmas DSP cut to 3-7/8" x 5-1/8".  Then curl one of the garland embellishments into an oval shape and adhere to the card front using either a glue gun or Beacon glue (super strong, clear adhesive).  Tie a double bow using the new 1/8" Real Red ribbon and adhere with a glue dot. Embellish the card with a couple of pearls and Voila!  You have a quick but beautiful Christmas card.  Don't forget to stamp a nice sentiment inside!

Here are other swaps that I will CASE ("copy and stamp everything") sometime in the near future.  I've limited my favorites to ones using current stamp sets - in a future post I will show you samples using new products from the upcoming Occasions catalog!  Wish I knew the designers of these cards to give them attribution - let me know if you see your own card here!
​

​







​Have you heard the news?  Stampin' Up! is entering the precision placement positioning market!  On November 16, 2017, SU! will start taking orders for the new Stamparatus tool - the must have tool for anyone who cares about precision placement.  Its such an upgrade over other products already on the market, I can't wait to get my hands on it!

I was lucky to see a live demonstration of the Stamparatus at OnStage Live in Salt Lake City this past weekend - and I can tell you that it is going on my Christmas wish list for sure!  One of the unique features of the Stamparatus over other precision placement tools is the fact that there are two, re-positionable plates so you have up to 4 stamping platforms, perfect for stamps with multiple layers.  Imagine stamping multiples of a Watercolor Wings' butterfly without having to change out your stamps or worry about perfect placement.  Another key feature of the new Stamparatus is the fact that both plates are on removable hinges so you can stamp an image, then move the plate down a hinge and restamp the image, perfectly spacing your images.  This "hinge-step" technique is demonstrated in the video which you can click on below.  Another thing I really like about the new Stamparatus is that there are two open sides to the tool, so you can stamp on a 12x12 scrapbook page.  There are no limiting edges or borders like on other positioning tools.  Plus, the two big magnets are super strong to keep your paper from moving while you stamp.  At $49, this tool is a definite "must-have."

Save the date to place your order - November 16, 2017!  The Stamparatus will be available to reserve on a first-come, first-serve basis while supplies last, so don't miss out!